Remember, remember the 7^th, 8^th, and 14^th of November!

The worst month in the Mayor’s tenure began on the 7^th with stinging defeats on the ballot, making him the biggest loser in the local elections. The Newsom operation dumped significant political and financial capital into both the Doug Chan and Rob Black Supervisor campaigns. Newsom’s former Police Commissioner finished in an abysmal fourth place. After summoning over a half-million dollars in soft money and conjuring up a Karl Rove-style political play, Newsom’s puppet in 6 was soundly beat back by a groundswell of progressive forces. With the election of Jane Kim and Kim-Shree Maufas, progressives took control of the School Board. Meanwhile, several important ballot measures bitterly opposed by the Mayor, including a referendum on whether Newsom should participate in monthly policy discussions at the Board of Supervisors, easily passed.

One day after the election, the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, the largest player in the Mayor’s soft money operation in District 6, turned around and sued the City to stop our universal healthcare plan. Perhaps this didn’t come as a surprise to those who witnessed the Restaurant Association’s opposition to progressive efforts to increase the minimum wage and require paid sick days for employees. But while the universal healthcare plan was instigated by progressive stalwart Tom Ammiano, it was Newsom who stole the national headlines when the compromise package was finally passed. Whether Newsom knew of the Restaurant Association’s play to kill “his” groundbreaking legislative package is unknown.

Much more has been made of a phone call Newsom received later that same day from San Francisco 49ers owner John York informing Newsom that the team would be leaving San Francisco for Santa Clara. Newsom, caught completely off-guard, hung up the phone on York. California’s ranking Senator and Newsom den mother, Diane Feinstein, had to step in to get Gavin back on the program talking to the York’s. Even if the City is successful at getting the Niners to reconsider (which seems unlikely given the severity of the breakdown), the damage was done. Apparently shortly thereafter, Newsom received another phone call – this time from United States Olympic Committee Chairman, Peter Ueberroth. San Francisco was out of the running to host 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

Meanwhile the Mayoral veto of Ross Mirkarimi’s wildly popular foot patrol legislation was backfiring big time. Only weeks before, hotshot Newsom spin doctor Peter Ragone accused me of playing politics with public safety, when I asked for the standard requisite budget detail before calendaring a supplemental appropriation. Newsom himself delivered an automated voice messages distributed in District 6 claiming Rob Black, “wouldn’t play politics with your safety.” As if setting up this Karl Rove-style political play wasn’t enough hypocrisy on the issue, Newsom spent the next weeks taking just about every position possible on the foot patrol proposal. First Newsom had his Police Chief oppose the legislation citing a lack of resources to implement the plan. The Department warned that requiring officers to walk beats would mean delays in response times to emergency police calls. When it became clear that the votes were there to pass the legislation, Chief Fong asked the Supervisors for a delay in the implementation until January for the Department to work out their internal staffing and resource issues. The Supervisors acquiesced. Then the Chief announced her support for the legislation. After signaling that he would not veto the legislation, Newsom vetoed expressing opposition to the Board interfering in police operations. Then Newsom had Fong develop an even larger foot patrol plan that would begin in November that she announced the day before the veto override vote! Talk about playing politics with public safety! But at least Gavin is standing with his soldier this time.

Never a very hands-on Mayor, this November has made it increasingly clear that Gavin Newsom has completely lost interest in, if not total control of, the running of the City. Besides his weekend walks through the streets of Districts 4 and 6 leading up to the November election, Newsom had been noticeably absent from San Francisco throughout his tenure — not just from the big policy discussions but also the day-to-day operations of the City. While Newsom’s pronouncement that he may not be up for another term is most likely hyperbole, Newsom should definitely be taking a long hard look through the style, spin, and pretty packaging at what he’s actually done with this current term.

During his City Desk Newshour interview with Barbara Taylor on November 16^th, Newsom was asked about the passage of Proposition J. “I am told Congress is going to come to a halt next week, and they’re going to reflect on this new San Francisco value. Before you impeach the President, you should consider the guy that would become President. Why don’t you start with the top 2?” He may not be worthy of the office, but Gavin Newsom is the Mayor – the Mayor of a major American city no less. It may be a good idea for the Mayor to at least read the ballot, if not the entire voter information pamphlet, before he goes spouting off on television.

I realize that Newsom has personal issues with his detractors and a bit of a glass jaw. Fine. But given that he’s completely lost face on public safety, lost control of the School Board, lost the Olympics and probably the Niners, possibly lost healthcare for 82,000 uninsured San Franciscans, maybe he should think twice about letting his personal insecurities lead him to further embarrassment.